


like ships need the sea

by SpicyReyes



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Families of Choice, Family Dynamics, Family Feels, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-19
Updated: 2020-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:15:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23216866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpicyReyes/pseuds/SpicyReyes
Summary: Ivankov calls for backup.Marineford goes a little bit smoother.
Relationships: Monkey D. Dragon & Monkey D. Luffy, Monkey D. Luffy & Portgas D. Ace & Sabo, Monkey D. Luffy/Trafalgar D. Water Law
Comments: 16
Kudos: 355





	like ships need the sea

**Author's Note:**

> basically a 'what if sabo and dragon had actually shOWED UP TO THE PARTY' au  
> me, tossing this into the void, my fourth one piece wip, can y'all tell i'm catching up??

Ivankov normally wouldn’t have considered it. 

He hadn’t, for years - how long had he waited, biding his time in Impel Down, without touching it? 

If this boy was being honest, though - and Ivan was sure that he was - then perhaps the time to wait had passed. Maybe he  _ needed  _ to act. 

“Wait here,” he told Luffy. “Just...for a moment.” 

Luffy clearly wanted to argue, eager to go after his brother, but nodded hesitantly anyway, allowing Ivan to leave and retrieve  _ it.  _

The special Den Den Mushi, small and white and perfectly untraceable.  _ One call only,  _ he knew. 

It was time to make that call. 

“Pick up, pick up, pick up…” he murmured, waiting as the phone rang.

It connected. The voice on the other end prompted him to speak. 

“Dragon, it’s Ivankov,” he said. “I’ve just met your son.” 

  
  
  
  


_ Come on, come on, come on… _

Ivankov watched the fighting, Marineford burning around him. 

Akainu called out to them, and he watched Ace stop, turning to face him. 

_ Come on, Dragon!  _ He thought.  _ Time’s almost up!  _

Akainu readied to attack-...

-...aiming at  _ Luffy-... _

An explosion sounded, louder than any that had shaken the grounds so far, and all eyes turned to watch as around them, almost everything still standing began to crumble.

Akainu’s distraction was enough for Ace to strike, knocking him aside long enough to haul Luffy to his feet and  _ run.  _

“What’s happening?” Luffy yelled. 

“Your dad finally showed up!” Ivankov called back to him. 

Wind around them picked up, howling, and the debris from the crumbling wreckage of Marineford was swept up in it, hurtling through the air at high speeds. 

“Thank you for calling, Ivankov!” an all-too-familiar voice called out. “Sorry to have made you wait.” 

“I have no complaints!” Ivan called back. “Welcome to the fight, Dragon!” 

Luffy skidded to a halt, eyes wide, looking over his shoulder wildly. “My dad?!”

“Keep moving!” Ivan shouted. “He can handle this! You need to get away!” 

Luffy hesitated a moment too long. Akainu recovered enough to strike again, aiming a vicious blow dead toward Luffy, clearly aiming to kill-...

...And hit Jinbe, dead on, as the fishman placed himself in the way. 

Luffy cried out, falling backward - though Ivan wasn’t sure if it was from the shock of seeing Jinbe so grievously injured, or the fact that the magma had pushed straight through, leaving a blooming burn on Luffy’s chest as well. 

Almost instantly, Akainu’s retribution came: the swirling winds turn vicious and cutting, and the gathered debris began slamming into him from all sides, pummeling him into the ground. 

“Get him out of here,” Dragon ordered, suddenly at Ivan’s side. “Neither of them will die if they can get to the sea.”

“They need extreme medical care,” Ivan said. “Even  _ I  _ am not sure-...” 

“There is a doctor waiting,” Dragon told him. 

“You brought-...?”

“No,” Dragon said. “He came of his own volition. Luffy’s made a few allies, it seems.” 

“He’s charming,” Ivan said. “...He doesn’t get that from you.” 

Dragon threw his head back in a laugh.

“I’ll get them out,” Ivan promised. “And then I’ll come back and fight.” 

“Don’t bother,” Dragon said. In the distance, at the center of the fighting, wind began to spin, building itself into a twister. “This battle’s already over. Ace lives, but Whitebeard dies...this is a draw. No winners, no losers. Only blood.”

“You’re as cheery as ever,” Ivan sighed, but lifted his hands, letting energy hormone needles prick up at the tips of his fingers, before approaching Jinbe with them. “This is-...”

“I know,” Jinbe murmured. “Do it. I will get him to his doctor.” 

“So will I,” Ace said, holding his brother tightly. 

And they ran. 

  
  
  
  


“What the hell happened?” Law demanded, as they brought both Jinbe and Luffy to him. He activated a room as quickly as possible, taking in the damage. “Cauterization is nasty...Fire?”

“Magma,” Ace corrected. “It went straight through Jinbe completely, and still hit Luffy.” 

Law made an affronted noise, turning his attention quickly onto Jinbe, checking over the wound. “He wasn’t the one they were aiming for,” he commented. “Angle’s not right. Missed too many vitals.” 

“He was aiming for Luffy,” Ace grit out. “Jinbe stepped in the way.” 

“Good thing he did,” Law muttered, examining the damage. “It would’ve killed a human. Hell, a smaller fishman would be fried by this.” 

He looked up, then, to Ace. “No offense,” he offered, because he wasn’t  _ completely  _ mannerless, “But get out now. That guy the revolutionaries sent is in the kitchen, if you wanna thank them for tanking the fucking Marines into the ocean.” 

Ace nodded, one last worried look to Luffy, and allowed himself to be guided out of the infirmary and into the submarine’s kitchen. 

Sure enough, a revolutionary agent was sitting at the table, perfectly casual- until he looked up, catching Ace’s eyes, his own going wide in realization.

Ace gaped at him. 

A day for miracles…

_ “...Sabo?!” _

  
  
  
  
  


Something was wrong. He felt all warm, but ragged. He felt like his body was falling apart, being held together only by-...

...By hands. There were hands on him, plucking at his body, pulling at his skin, brushing deep within his chest-...

...His  _ chest? _

Luffy dragged his eyes open, looking blearily at the source of the contact. 

“Shit, fuck,” the person leaning over him swore, moving quickly. Luffy’s blurry vision had trouble tracking what they were doing, or what they looked like, or who they were…

He’d been doing something, though. Hadn’t he? Hadn’t he…?

Ace.

_ “Ace!” _

Hands held him down, gentle but firm. “Sorry, Straw Hat-ya,” the voice murmured to him. “Not quite enough sedative for your stubborn ass. I’m not done yet, though, so-...”

A pinch on the side of his neck, and Luffy’s consciousness began to fade again. 

“Back to sleep.” 

  
  
  
  
  


“You forgot  _ everything?”  _

“I...I guess so,” Sabo said, staring openly at Ace. “Even now, it’s kind of fuzzy...I remember more seeing you, though. All I could remember when Dragon told me about his son being in trouble was thinking that his name sounded familiar. Actually  _ looking  _ at you…”

“And now?” Ace asked, hesitant. “You remember me?” 

Sabo blinked, then beamed. “Of course I do,” he said. “You’re my brothers!” 

Ace crossed the room in long strides, dragging Sabo into a hug. “We thought you were  _ dead,”  _ he cried. 

“I would’ve come back if I’d remembered I had somewhere to be,” Sabo assured him. “Nothing’s more important to me than you guys. I’ve only remembered so much, but that is the first thing that came back. You guys are everything to me.”

Ace pulled back, looking at Sabo in grief. “Luffy,” he said. “Luffy’s hurt, bad.”

Sabo frowned. “I heard,” he said. “Trafalgar is supposedly the best surgeon in the world, though, and Luffy’s strong. His chances are good.” 

_ “Good  _ isn’t  _ certain,”  _ Ace grouched. 

“Well, odds of rescuing you were exactly  _ none,”  _ Sabo said, “so I’ll place my bets on Luffy, anyway.”

Ace huffed out a laugh. “I suppose.” 

  
  
  
  
  


Luffy opened his eyes, looking blearily at the bright blue sky above.

_ Pretty,  _ he thought. 

A low chuckle sounded to his side, causing him to roll his head toward it, looking to see who was beside him. 

_ It’s the room fruit guy! Tra-whatever.  _

“Trafalgar Law,” he said, leaning over Luffy a bit and tugging on his face, peeking into his eyes. 

_ Can he read minds?  _

“You’re talking out loud, dumbass,” Law said. Looking off to the side, he called out, “I told you that last dose was too much! I already gave him a ton during the operation to keep him unconscious. He’s going to be high as a kite for a  _ while,  _ this way.” 

Law looked back down, holding one of Luffy’s eyelids open, staring dead into it. 

Luffy wondered, vaguely, what he was looking for. Feeling it wasn’t fair for only one of them to be staring, he concentrated hard on the other’s eyes, as well. 

_ His eyes are pretty, too,  _ Luffy decided. Like little stormy skies.

“Alright, someone else take him,” Law said, face red, wrenching away from Luffy. “I didn’t sign up for babysitting.” 

Luffy watched Law walk away, confused, until movement caught his attention again, and he looked up to see-...

“Ace!” Luffy cried out, reaching out to his brother. “You were in trouble!”

“Yeah, I was,” Ace agreed, taking his hand. “But you got me out of it. And you’ll never guess who else I found!” 

Ace turned around, nodding toward Luffy, and another fuzzy figure approached, crouching down to be in Luffy’s field of view as well. 

Luffy blinked. “...Sabo?”

“Yeah,” Sabo confirmed. “It’s me, Luffy.”

“He’s alive,” Ace said. “He was alive the whole time, Luffy, he just had amnesia.” 

“...Oh.” 

Ace faltered, watching Luffy with a concerned face, making his brows pinch in a funny way. 

“He’s completely stoned,” Sabo commented. “He has no idea what the hell is going on. Hey, Luffy? How old are you?”

“Uh…” Luffy scrunched up his face, trying to think. “I...gotta be little, if Sabo is here. I was little when Sabo…” 

The words caught in his throat. 

“Please don’t make him cry,” Law’s voice called, from a distance. “I will leave you all here.” 

“Sabo’s alive, buddy,” Ace told him again. “We’re all fine. I swear.” 

“Oh,” Luffy said again. Then, he reached out, taking the hand that wasn’t holding Ace’s - crossing his arms over each other in the process, not thinking to exchange hands - and grabbing Sabo’s, holding them both. “Stay with me?” 

Both gripped his hands tightly. “Always,” Ace confirmed. 

“I’m not leaving you again,” Sabo promised. 

“Okay...good,” Luffy breathed...and promptly laid back out, falling back into a dead sleep. 

  
  
  
  
  


A few days later, Luffy broke into Marineford again, and rang the bell sixteen times. 

The Straw Hats all received the news, including its photo, and got the message hidden within.

3D 2Y. 

They’d be there.

And so, too, would all three brothers, together for good. 


End file.
